Embodiments described herein relate generally to systems for calculating estimated Social Security benefits, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for determining optimal Social Security election decisions for married couples.
Some known Social Security calculators calculate estimated Social Security benefits for single users. These Social Security calculators typically apply a “break-even” analysis to make a decision for when to elect Social Security for a user. Such Social Security calculators, however, operate only on election strategies designed for single users, and do not provide the user with election strategies available to married couples.
Some other known financial planning software tools can analyze the impact of different Social Security benefit elections for married couples. Such known software tools, however, typically analyze the elections on a scenario by scenario basis, in which a user inputs a set of election ages for a married couple and the program calculates the result of those election ages for the married couple. As such, these software tools do not provide a “landscape” view of possible options and strategies for electing Social Security.
Accordingly, a need exists for methods and apparatus that calculate and compare the Social Security election results across various election strategies and for all combinations of election ages for a married couple, thus to determine the best Social Security election strategy for the unique circumstances of the married couple.